She was educated at Queens
University, Belfast where she graduated with an LL.B. degree.
It was at Queen's University where her political career began after
joining the Queens Ulster Unionist Party
Association. She served as the association's chairwoman from 1992
to 1993. After leaving Queens University, she remained active in
the Ulster Unionist Party, chairing its youth wing, the Ulster
Young Unionist Council, in 1995. In 1996, she became an
Honorary Secretary of the UUP's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist
Council, a position which she held until her resignation from the
UUP on 18 December 2003.

Early
political life

She was elected as an Ulster Unionist in the 2003 Assembly elections, but shortly
afterwards resigned from the party and joined the DUP, together
with fellow Assembly members Jeffrey Donaldson and Norah Beare. She was
selected as the DUP's candidate for Fermanagh & South Tyrone in
the United Kingdom
general election, 2005. Negotiations took place between the
local branches of the DUP and UUP with the aim of finding an agreed
unionist candidate. The negotiations broke down with neither party
willing to accept the electoral dominance of the other; the UUP
claiming Foster's defection to the DUP disguised the reality of the
UUP's electoral strength, whilst the DUP pointed to change in the
unionist political landscape following the 2003 Assembly election
and 2004 European Parliament election. The UUP candidate was Tom Elliott. Foster
finished second in the 2005 general election with 14,056 votes.

Personal
life

Minister of the
Environment

In September 2007, a privately financed proposal for a new Giant's
Causeway centre was given preliminary approval by the new
Northern Ireland Environment Minister and Democratic Unionist Party
(DUP) member Arlene Foster.[3]
Immediately afterwards, the public money that had been allocated to
the Causeway development was frozen. The proposal resulted in a
public row about the relationship between the private developer
Seymour Sweeney and the DUP; Mr Sweeney is a member of the DUP,
although both parties deny that Mr Sweeney has ever given to the
party financially.[4] On 29
January 2008, Mrs Foster announced that she had now decided against
Mr Sweeney's proposal for a new visitors' centre, reversing her
earlier position of "being minded" to approve it.[5]
Although the public funds for a Causeway scheme remain frozen for
the moment, it seems highly likely that the publicly funded plan
for the Causeway will now go ahead after all.